Tesla posts one of its worst quarters ever as survey finds 50% of American dislike Elon Musk

Tesla is coming off one of the worst quarters it’s ever reported, and investors are pissed. The electric car company, led by Elon Musk, is down bad—really bad.

Between January and March, the stock dropped by 36%, marking the third biggest quarterly loss since Tesla went public in 2010. According to Bloomberg, the company will report its earnings after markets close Tuesday, and analysts expect both profits and revenue to be weaker than last year.

Sales for the first three months of this year have crashed to a point Tesla hasn’t seen in nearly three years. Growth forecasts across Wall Street have been butchered, with profit estimates cut by 12% and revenue estimates down over 6%. Tesla’s stock has plunged 53% since December. The selloff started after the company reached a record high. Now it’s stuck, and everyone is pointing fingers at Elon.

Investors blame musk’s distractions and politics

Elon’s political moves are dragging the whole thing down. His growing involvement with Trump’s administration and a weird-ass group called the Department of Government Efficiency is not going unnoticed.

People aren’t buying what he’s selling—not cars, and definitely not the politics. Earlier this month, there were rumors that Elon might pull back from politics, and that was the first time Tesla shares stopped bleeding for a moment. But then the sales numbers came in, and it was back to hell.

Dave Mazza, the boss at Roundhill Investments, owns Tesla stock and made it clear: “Musk needs to bring the voltage on this earnings call to get the stock out of stall speed.” He said the company is in an “information air pocket” while Elon wastes time with DOGE-related activities instead of fixing the disaster happening in actual markets.

Investors are waiting for real updates, not drama. They want to know when the self-driving car will finally drop. Tesla said it’s coming later this summer, but no one knows exactly when. That’s not helping. While they stall, other EV makers are catching up fast—and some are passing them by. Tesla is losing momentum, and Elon’s got too many distractions.

There’s also zero new model announcement, and that’s making it worse. Everyone else in the industry is pushing out fresh stuff. Tesla’s lineup is getting stale. Add that to the political mess, and it’s just not looking good.

Public sentiment turns even more sour

Tesla is losing fans outside Wall Street too. A CNBC All-America Economic survey found that 47% of Americans now have a negative view of the company. Just 27% are positive, and the rest couldn’t care less.

Compare that to General Motors, where only 10% feel negative, 51% are neutral, and about a third actually like them. That’s a pretty clear message.

The same survey shows 50% of Americans have a negative view of Elon himself. Only 36% have a good opinion, and 16% are neutral. He’s not just disliked. He’s polarizing too. Among Democrats, his net approval is minus 82. Among independents, it’s minus 49. Only Republicans are backing him with a net score of plus 56.

Gene Munster, co-founder of Deepwater Asset Management, gave the harshest forecast yet: “The takeaway for most will likely be that 2025 is a throwaway year.” In other words, don’t expect anything useful this year. Gene thinks Tesla might pull off a comeback in 2026, but for now, the mood is grim.

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